Shoe heater



Sept. 6, 1932. M. 0. JENNINGS SHOE HEATER Filed Au 50, 1929 Patented Sept. 6, 1932 UNITED STATES MELVIN 0. JENNTNGS, OF LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO HARRY H. BECK PATENT OFFICE WITH, OF BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS SHOE. HEATER Application filed August 30, 1929. Serial No. 389,378.

" This invention relates to shoe heaters for conditioning a portion of the upper priorto the bed lasting operation. In most of the shoes manufactured, the toe portion of the upper is provided witha stiffening member, both for the purpose of helping to keep the upper in shape and also to protect the toes of the wearer. These stiffening members, known commonly as box toes,'may be of various materials. Many box toes are now made of fibrous material mixed with a thermoplastic binder which is still when cold but may be rendered flexibleby suitable heating. This material is made into sheet form from which blanks of suitable shape are out. These blanks are warmed to render them flexible and when thus suitably conditioned may be inserted in place with the other materials of the shoe uppers, immediately prior to the pulling-over operation. The pulling-over step bends the upper with the box toe around the toe portion of the last so that the box toe cools and hardens in its ultimate shape. The edges of the box toe which are bent under the last must be heated again prior to the lasting operation in order that these edges may be smoothly secured to the last.

When the uppers are composed of ordinary leather, it is desirable to heat and moisten the toe portion of the upper prior to the bed lasting operation so as to stretch the leather over the toe of the last. There are some delicate leathers, however, which are ruined by moisture so that for these leathers it is de- Y ditioning box toes, since such heat is liable to spew the box toes, that is, to cause the thermoplastic binder to exude. This not only weakens the box toe itself, but is liable to cause the binder to soak into the liner or leather of the upper and spot the leather. Dry heat is also liable to burn the leather itself.

According to the present invention a heater is provided which is capable of supplying heat to the under-turned marginal portions of the upper, this heat being accompanied by a small amount of moisture, or, if desired, a

larger amount. According to the invention the shoe heater includes a housinghaving an upper and a lower portion, the upper portion being removable for replacement by a similar portion or by a heating attachment of another kind'for other purposes. This results in an economy in factories where shoes of dif-- ferent types of leather are made in successive batches, some leathers requiring steaming H while others require comparatively dry heat. Various advantageous features of construc tion will beapparent to one skilled in the art from the disclosure of the invention in the de-.

scription which follows and on the drawing, of which,

Figure 2.

The heater illustrated on the drawing com-' prises a lower casing 10 in which is suitably mounted a receptacle llfor water to supply whatever moisture maybe desired. In order to maintaina relatively small amount of water in the receptacle 11 at a fairly constant level, this receptacle may be connected to a suitable reservoir '12 as by'one or more apertures 13. An inverted flask 14 may be employed to supply the reservoir 12. In this way the quantity of'water normally in the receptacle 11 is relatively small so'that when the apparatus is started up for the days work little time is lost in heating'th'e water to operating temperature. The heater also includes an upper casing 15'which fits upon the lower casing 10 and forms therewith a sub stantially closed housing for the receptacle 11. The top 16 of the housing is preferably sloped, as shownin Figure 2, and is provided with suitable small perforations 17 these perforations being arranged to conform roughly to the contour of the toe portion of a last, as indicated in Figures 1 and 3, so that heated air and moisture passing therethrough will impinge directly on the under-turned margins of the toe portions of the shoe uppers which are tacked to the last.

In order to support the last with its toe Y Figure 1 is a perspective view of a shoe portion properly positioned over the perforations 17, a fixed rail 18 may be secured to the front of the casing, an adjustable rail- 19 being supported by suitable brackets 20. An arcuate guide rail 21, also of general horseshoe shape, may be mounted on the top 16 for each set of perforations so as'to facil- This guide rail preferably extends up slightly above the bottom edge of the lastso as'to prevent objectionable side drafts due to air currents in the room where the shoe heater is operated, which drafts and air'currents would otherwise tend to blow the heat andmoisture from theperforations 17 to one side, with the result that the marginal portions of the uppers would be unevenly treated.

Within the upper casing 15 is supported a heating unit 22 whi-ch, as shown may be encased in ash-eath 23 to protect the element within. This heater may be supported as by suitable brackets 24 and is preferably ar ranged to extend longitudinally from one end of. the housing to the other above the I receptacle 11. For the purpose of illustration, an, electrical heating unit'is illustrated. I do not wish to limit myself to this'particular form of heateras any equivalent unit such, for example, as a steam pipe may be similar-' ly employed.- The unit 22 may be'controlled by a suitable switch 25 conveniently mounted at one end of the housing. The function of this unit is notonly to heat by conta ct the air and vapor within the housing. but also to accelerate evaporation of water from the receptacle 11 by the radiant heat projected therethrough downwardly into the receptacle. As the vapor rises from the receptacle 11 and mixes with the air in the casing it is further heated by contact with the hot unit 22. This results in a supply of heated air containing a relatively small amount of moisture. The

flow of air through the perforations 17 may ing thereafter turned off.

edinto a casting 34 secured to the bottom of the housing. A suitable base for the standheaters beconveni- ,ently supported by a single standard 33 the upper end of which is shown as screw threadard 83 (not shown) may be secured to the.

An embodiment of this invention having thus been described, it should be evident, to those, skilled inthe art that various changes and'modifications might be made therein without departing from its spirit or scope as defined bythe appended claim. 1

I claim: v 7

.A device of the :class described comprising a housinghaving a perforated top, means for supporting a shoe last with its toe portion overw said perforations, a guide rail mountedon said perforated top to receive toe portions of lasts, means for heating the air within -said"housing, means, for supplying moisture forthe heated air. and means for ad mitting to. the housing a controlled flow of fresh air. 7 '1 In testimony whereof I haveaflixed my'signature. s

MELVIN. 0. JENNINGS.

be controlled as by a suitable damper 26- which as shown in Figure 2, is adjacent to the lip of the receptacle 11 so that when the damper 26 is closed it formswith the receptacle a substantially tight partition below the casing 15. c

If for certain kinds of leather it is' desired to supply additional moisture with the heated air, the water in the receptacle 11 may be more strongly heated by heating units 27 which may be securely clamped against the bottom of the receptacle 11 as by set screws 28. As shown in Figure 2 two such units are employed, but any convenient number may be employed according to their size and the desired conditions of operation. The heaters 27 may be controlled by a suitable switch 29. These heaters are also convenient 7 when starting up the apparatus for a days work since by their use the water in the receptacle 11 may quickly be brought up t0. op 

